House of Set
by Ejays17
Summary: Nina / Fabian.  Sometimes you need a push from an outside source to finally say what you feel.  One-shot  unless I get inspired to continue it


**House of Set**

(A House of Anubis fanfic)

AN: I don't own the characters / setting / mysteries of House of Anubis. Canon-compliant until House of Stars (the latest episode I've seen). Spoilers for that episode in particular.

AN 2: Fabian decided he wanted a story of his own. Plus this one also meets the third item in the "trifecta" my SLOC and I decided on about various bits of the show. And no, I won't say what each item is – it's a private joke between me and SLOC.

Nina is a terrible liar. And by terrible I mean really bad at it, not that she does it all the time. Maybe if she did, she'd be better at it…

No wonder Victor's so suspicious of us, every time we're caught in the wrong part of the house, or doing something we shouldn't be, she stammers and stutters, and comes up with the most absurd stories. No one in their right mind would believe the stuff she says!

Of course, the upside of that is that when she does say something truthful that sounds stupid, he doesn't believe that either, so we can get away with stuff with him that some of the other teachers wouldn't let us get away with.

Case in point: tonight – having managed to distract the rest of the Sibunas (Patricia was stalking Joy by text, Amber was painting her nails, Alfie was who knows where doing who knows what, but probably damaging property in some way) – I'd gone to Nina's room to discuss what to do about the latest riddle. As Amber had rightfully pointed out earlier that day, it's no use looking behind the mirrors as you don't look through mirrors. Excellent Amber-site, but as we'd already gone looking behind all the mirrors, it wasn't much help.

She was sitting by the window, star-gazing. Or more correctly, moon-struck. The moon was close enough to full, and you couldn't really see the stars because it was so bright. She'd been talking nonsense about home and her friends, and how you couldn't see the stars from her bedroom window at home because the street-lights were too bright. She likes to star-gaze from her window here, when she can. One night, when Victor's not on the prowl, I'd like to show her the secret place I found up on the roof, I go up there sometimes to think. And to daydream. And make plans I know damn well won't ever happen, not unless I get over this depressing inability to talk to Nina about anything that isn't directly related to school-work or the Sibuna quest.

"Come sit," she said, indicating the cushion next to her. I needed no further invitation, taking off the guitar I had been idly playing, and sitting down next to her. "It's so beautiful," she said, looking out at the moon.

"Yes, it is," I agreed, not looking at the moon, but at her. She didn't notice, and again I cursed myself for being unable to do something more. I looked out the window at the night sky and mulled over the latest riddle. What else do you look through that isn't windows or mirrors? Night sky, stars, moon, astronomy… Telescope! "It's a telescope!" I said excitedly. "The next answer is a telescope. And there's one in the lounge we can use."

"Fabian, you're a genius! Let's go check it out now." Nina grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the door, intent on finding the next clue in the trail to the secret treasure of the house. I loved it when she got enthusiastic over these things, her face got more _alive_ somehow, and she could pretty much get me to do anything when she was like this.

Truthfully, she could get me to do anything at any time. I'd gone from being the sensible and boring one who always kept the rules, to someone who would sneak out of bed at the drop of a hat (_or the smile of a pretty girl)_, and would lie to Victor with no qualms.

Downstairs, Nina focussed the telescope on the full moon, but couldn't read the words clearly. So I was looking through it, reading the words of the next clue when Victor came in, demanding to know what we were doing out of our rooms.

Nina stammered, "We were just looking for bowling alleys. Fabian loves bowling, don't you Fabian?" Her eyes pleaded with me to back her up. Like I wouldn't have agreed with anything she said, but really, how could anyone have bought that? She could have just said that we were looking at the stars, which would be perfectly true, and not at all suspicious.

"Oh, yes, absolutely. I love bowling," I agreed hastily. It wasn't enough to convince Victor – _no surprise_ – and he insisted on looking through the telescope himself. Lucky for us the weather had clouded over and he couldn't see anything through the telescope. "Only you two would think of stargazing on a cloudy night. Now off to bed, it's 10 o'clock and I want to hear a pin drop in five minutes."

We exchanged relieved smiles, and shot out of the room before Victor could ask us any more questions. "Nina, you are the worst liar _ever_!" I hissed at her as we parted at the bottom of the stairs.

She grinned at me. "I know, I can't help it. I always have been. See you in the morning!" And with that, she disappeared up the stairs to her bedroom.

Leaving me to go to my own bedroom, to lie awake half the night berating myself for another missed opportunity. At this rate, I'd be voting before I'd kissed a girl.

X X X X X X

The girls were just emerging from the trees on the side of the oval, and I raised my hand to catch their attention. Patricia was talking a mile-a-minute to the other two, obviously laying down the law over something as usual. Amber was nodding at whatever Patricia was saying, but Nina was shaking her head in disagreement.

Patricia's clear voice floated across the oval to where I was sitting. "You've got to be _blind_ if you can't see it, Nina. Fabian adores you. Even _Amber_ can see it, and she doesn't usually notice anything that isn't to do with clothes or makeup."

I felt my stomach drop to me feet, this is not how I wanted things to go. I was supposed to tell her those things, not have some harpy spill the beans.

But the harpy wasn't finished embarrassing me, even inadvertently. "You know, if he was a dog, he'd spend half his time licking your feet in devotion."

A harsh crack of laughter floated across the grass, followed by Amber's horrified giggle, and Nina's admonishing, "Patricia! He does not! Don't be so horrible." She stomped off ahead of the other two, straight in my direction.

_Oh, hell!_ I thought, scrambling backwards through the garden, anxious to get away from her. _She's not gonna want to see me after what Patricia said._

Nina was fuming, muttering to herself as she continued towards me. She threw a filthy look over her shoulder at the two other girls, missing seeing me as she stormed past. Good, it gave me a chance to come up with a plan of attack, as it were, to fix things with her. Assuming, of course, that she was willing to talk to me again.

"Hi Fabian," chirped Amber. "We've just been in the clearing, waiting for you. Why weren't you there?"

Behind her, Patricia rolled her eyes. "Because he's on extra kitchen duties this week. Mara asked him to swap with her as Jerome has been bugging her all week. And Fabes, being soft in the head, agreed. Don't you ever listen to anyone talk but yourself?" she said rudely.

A hurt look passed over Amber's face, and something inside me snapped. "Patricia, you're such a witch! There's no need to speak to her that way, it's a perfectly reasonable question, seeing as Amber wasn't there when Mara and I swapped duties. I didn't know we had a Sibuna meeting today, I would have told Mara no if I'd known," I said angrily.

Amber's face cleared at that. "Oh, it wasn't a Sibuna meeting, we were hiding from Trudy, she's on a spring-cleaning rampage, and I couldn't _possibly_ do dusting and sweeping. It makes me sneeze." She linked her arm through mine and pulled me towards the house, leaving Patricia standing alone. "Nina wants to talk to you about something; I think she's worked out the next part of the puzzle. Or at least something like that, I wasn't really listening."

I froze; I wasn't prepared to face Nina yet. Especially if she believed what Patricia had said. She'd be uncomfortable and unhappy, and I didn't want that. I'd never want that for her.

Amber looked at me shrewdly. It was an odd expression to see on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, closed it, then thought for a moment and said, "She likes you too, you know. She just thinks she can't tell you that because of Joy."

"What's Joy got to do with it?" I asked, confused.

"Because Joy also likes you, and Nina's following the Girlfriend Code – even though she doesn't know Joy – where you don't chase after a friend's guy. Mara's really bad at keeping to the Girlfriend Code, you know. But it's okay now, I'm so _totally_ over Mick." She flicked her hair back, and gave me a sunny smile. She gave me a push towards the door. "Go, talk, you'll be happy. She'll be happy. Everyone will be happy. Except maybe Joy." She shrugged her shoulders, relegating Joy's possible unhappiness to the same place she left bad hair days and broken nails.

"Okay, I will then." I took a couple of deep breaths, trying to settle down my roiling stomach. Right, no more avoiding things, just go in there and _tell_ her.

I went in the front doors, nearly falling over Trudy, who had picked that spot to stand while berating Alfie for not wiping his feet before stomping all over her nice clean floors.

"Sorry Trudy, I didn't see you there," I apologized, holding her arm as Alfie mouthed _thank you_, and disappeared down the corridor to his room.

"That's fine, sweetie. No harm done," the housekeeper replied.

"Did you see where Nina went? Amber said she was looking for me?"

"Upstairs to her room, I suppose. Unless she's managed to turn invisible and come back down while I've been mopping the entrance and stairs," she said.

"Thanks," I said. I took another deep breath and went up the stairs to the room she shared with Amber. The door was closed, but I could hear movement inside, so knew she was in there.

I tapped lightly on the door. "Nina, it's Fabian. Can I talk to you?"

The movements stopped, and silence reigned. I waited a minute or two and then knocked again. "Please Nina. I won't go until you talk to me. I need to tell you some stuff."

The door opened a few inches, and Nina's face appeared in the space. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and there were traces of moisture on her cheeks. My heart dropped at the sight. I didn't mean to make her cry, it's the last thing I wanted to do. I put on my best pleading face, which usually worked wonders with Trudy and getting out of chores, and after a moment, she opened the door the rest of the way and said gruffly, "Come in then."

I entered the room, and closed the door behind me. Nina had sat down cross-legged on her bed and was hugging one of her pillows. A damp patch on the cover told me that she had used it to dry her eyes when I knocked on the door.

She fixed her eyes on me over the pillow. "You wanted to talk to me, so talk. You've got five minutes before I chuck you out." Her tone was probably the most unfriendly one she had used to me since she started at the school, even the time I lost the puzzle pieces she was more upset than angry with me.

I scrubbed my hands down my pants legs – I was so nervous than I felt like throwing up. This was my one shot with Nina, muck this up and I was stuffed. I was potentially going to lose my best friend.

"Nina, I heard what Patricia said to you and Amber just before," I started, blushing furiously. "it's not how I wanted to say something about my feelings, but I guess it's forced my hand."

She nodded her head, not saying anything.

"I like you Nina. An awful lot. And I have for quite a while. You're smart, and you're funny, and I think you're gorgeous. And I've wanted to tell you all that for ages, but every time I went to say something, we got interrupted or something else happened and I'd miss my moment. And the longer it went the harder it got."

Nina was shaking her head. "No, I don't believe you. You're just trying to make me feel better about what Patricia said. I _know_ that you're only helping me so Joy will come back to the house. And anyway, I don't need the added complication of you. It's hard enough with the puzzle pieces, and the riddles, and keeping up with schoolwork, without adding you to the list. And I don't like you that way anyway," she finished off.

"Nina, you are the _worst_ liar I've ever met!" I sat down next to her on the bed, and took one of her hands, lacing our fingers together. "What Patricia said is true. I do adore you, I adore spending time with you, no matter what for." I gave a small shrug and a smile. "I probably wouldn't lick your feet though, it sounds rather gross, really," I joked.

Nina's eyes widened and a blush crept up her cheeks. "Oh, Fabian," she murmured. "I truly did think that you were interested in Joy, which is why you were hwlping me. And Amber says that you don't steal another girl's boyfriend, so I couldn't say anything myself to you."

"I'm sorry I made you cry today," I said. "I hate it when I upset you, especially when I could have avoided it. If only I had said something earlier."

"But you didn't. And there's no point regretting past actions or non-actions. I'm just as bad for not saying anything too. I was happy that you wanted to help me, I could spend the time with you and pretend in my head that it was more than what it was."

It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I had told her what I felt, and the world hadn't collapsed. And Amber had been right, and Nina liked me equally back. All was good with my world again.

Nina was tracing figures on the back of our clasped hands. "You can kiss me if you like, Fabian," she said shyly. "In case you thought I wouldn't want to."

A sharp indrawing of breath. I'd imagined kissing Nina plenty of times before, and I was finally going to find out whether my imagination was any good.

My imagination is _boring_ compared to the real thing….


End file.
